During the 2015 Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan (BVCP) update process the university gathered feedback about CU Boulder South through meetings with public officials and residents, as well as through a communitywide online survey. CU Boulder incorporated many of the themes from those conversations within the university’s goals to ensure compatibility with values shared by the university and the city. These include:
- At no cost to the city, the dedication and use of up to 80 acres of CU Boulder’s property to provide land in the most optimal location for the city’s critical flood-mitigation project and for open space.
- CU Boulder has agreed to maintain general consistency with the city’s height limits on CU Boulder South.
- Buildings on the site will be designed and sited to protect and complement the views of the mountain, backdrop, and viewsheds from the U.S. 36 bike path, the South Boulder Creek Trail, U.S. 36 and Colorado Highway 93.
- Development of faculty, staff and non-freshman student housing.
- CU Boulder has agreed not to build large-scale sports venues such as a football stadium or large research complexes like those on its East Campus.
- CU Boulder will create connections to open space trails and provide continued free use by the community of new and improved walking trails.
- CU Boulder has agreed that recreational fields it builds on the site would be available for use by community partners.
- Extensive use of alternative transportation and multimodal mobility.
- Sustainability and resiliency.
The 2017 approval of the 2015 BVCP with changed land use designations for CU Boulder South allowed annexation discussions between the university and the city to occur.
With annexation now in place, CU Boulder will has a better sense of what it is able to develop at CU Boulder South. The legally binding annexation agreement creates parameters around what types of development the university can and can’t move forward with, further defining the guiding principals put in place during the 2015 BVCP process.